The present invention relates to a system on a boat for retrieving oil spills and more particularly to such a system including means on the boat for separating the oil and water collected therefrom.
The risks of oil spills is considerable in view of the increase in offshore drilling and the shipment of oil via large tankers; the problem is compounded because of the large volumes of oil involved.
The system of the present invention provides a means for collecting the oil from the surface of the water and processing the collected oil so as to remove the water therefrom. The system includes a boat which carries the collecting and processing apparatus. In the retrieval portion of the process the oil is picked up from the surface of the water and as this is done a substantial quantity of the surface water is also picked up. While the boat has a selected storage capacity to hold the retrieved oil this capacity would be quickly exhausted since a significant amount of water would be picked up along with the oil. At the same time the combination of water and oil would have to eventually be disposed of at some suitable facility. In the present invention the boat is equipped with processing apparatus operable for separating the water from the oil. The water as it is processed would be monitored to determine the quantity of oil remaining in the water. When the water has been processed to a satisfactory point whereby the oil has been essentially removed, it can then be expelled back into its source. The removed oil would be stored. With the removal of the water the storage capacity can be devoted solely to the retrieved oil whereby the storage efficiency of the system is greatly enhanced. The significant feature here is not processing to provide clean oil but rather processing the mixture such that the removed oil has a minimum of water content to reduce the volume required to be stored until the boat can unload either at shore or to a sister ship. The other significant feature is to process the removed water until its contaminant level (with oil) is low enough to permit its discharge back to its source.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an oil spill retrieval system including apparatus for collecting the oil from the surface of a body of water and for processing the collected oil to remove the water collected with it and to return the cleaned water back to its source.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved oil retrieval system.